Bulgartabac Holding Group AD or simply Bulgartabac is a Bulgarian tobacco holding company. Established in 1947 and based in the capital Sofia, it includes 11 joint-stock subsidiary companies in the tobacco-growing regions of the country.
Bulgartabac produces over 50 cigarette brands, monopoly of product, and sub-brands in its modernised factories in Sofia and Blagoevgrad using both domestic and imported tobacco. Amongst the company's brands are Victory, Rodopi, Haskovo, Gorna Djumaya (GD), Arda, Stewardess, Femina, Prestige, Eva, Bulgartabac, MM, Melnik, Seven Hills, Global, Bridge, Tresor, BT, Charlie, Nevada, Orient Express, Country, etc.
In 2011, A unit of OAO VTB, Russia's second-largest bank, was awarded a majority stake in Bulgartabac after the sole bidder offered to pay 100.1 million euros ($145 million) for an 80% stake.[1]
Controversies
Bulgarian news sources Sega and FOCUS linked Bulgartabac to reports that CorpBank banker Tsvetan Vasilev had ordered the assassination of Member of Parliament Delyan Peevski, prompting Bulgartabac to "declare war on CorpBank" and divest itself of all accounts within that institution.